


The Golden Glow Of A Unicorn Hunter

by gala_apples



Series: Shameless First Impressions [6]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Bisexuality, Bondage, Brotherly advice, Come Sharing, Established Relationship, F/M, First Time Blow Jobs, Identity Issues, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Polyamory, Questioning, Recreational Drug Use, Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:14:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24249361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gala_apples/pseuds/gala_apples
Summary: Lip might be attracted to his girlfriend's husband. Seeing as this is completely goddamn unacceptable, it takes some time to get used to the concept.
Relationships: Lip Gallagher/Helene Runyon/Theo Runyon
Series: Shameless First Impressions [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1724326
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	The Golden Glow Of A Unicorn Hunter

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'the world will go on spinning' for my Shameless prompt card. 
> 
> As someone who's poly, Lip's relationship with the Runyons left a lot to be desired. Lip did some dumb things (like assume he had the right to kick the ass of a potential other lover [it being their son resolved nothing for me]), they did some dumb things (like not continue the conversation when they asked if he had questions and he said no. Really, you're gonna leave things there?). And then before anyone had a chance to communicate and figure things out, everything fell to shit because of the stupid fucking picture. Well, not in my household. In my household, we give polyamory happy endings, or at least the potential for them.
> 
> Lastly, there's a scene in this fic with Lip smoking up with Ian. In real life, smoking weed is correlated to more manic episodes, and drinking interacts poorly with the meds making it seem like you’re drinking double. Lip would know that, and not endanger his brother. But the show consistently ignores Ian's meds, and I’m writing this in line with the show, so in character smoking a bowl it is.

The first crossed line is the night Theo sits in the armchair to watch him and Helene fuck. Okay, no. To be fair to Theo, the first crossed line was definitely when Helene let a student eat her out in her office. But that’s a different kind of line than the one Theo stomps on staying in the room watching another man fuck his wife to shuddering roiling completion. Watching _Lip_.

Because once it happens once, a week later it happens again. Only this time instead of simply getting into bed once the show is over and they’re standing up, this time Theo kisses them both on the cheek. It’s not the first time Theo has done it. It just comes away from its bourgeois French bullshit hello to friends and acquaintances and morphs into something much more intimate when everyone is naked and sweaty and Theo has a hard on. Lip waits for Helene to ask him if he’s okay with it, so he can shout the proper manly no, but she doesn’t. Lip’s neither homophobic enough nor willing to rock the boat enough to say ‘tell your husband to stop touching me’, so he figures he’ll just put his foot down next time. If there even is a next time, and who’s to say there will be?

Of course there’s a next time. Because Lip has no interest in stopping fucking Helene, Helene has no interest in stopping with him, and evidently Theo has no interest in stopping watching. And this time it’s a kiss on the lips. Lip’s seriously not homophobic, because Ian, but what the hell? Which is apparently a poor argument, because when he brings it up with Helene in her office, far from eavesdropping relevant parties, she pins him with one of her best disappointed professor expressions.

“You truly believe college isn’t a time for experimentation? How many straight girls have you seen making out at parties?”

“Yeah, for an audience. For points.” He’s not quite buying her thesis, not yet. 

“You think I’m not an audience? You think it doesn’t make me so, _so_ wet thinking of you kissing my husband?” Helene takes his hand and guides it up her skirt and that's the end of that conversation. 

But Lip still needs to talk. It’s the kind of topic that makes Lip wish Karen was okay, was still around. Despite all of her faults, she never once shied away from her sexuality, or accepting others’. But she’s gone, as cut away from Lip’s life as a faith in authorities. You never know what you have until it’s gone. Lip takes the L to the South Side, thinking about Karen and watching the class of rider dip lower and lower. There’s only one other person he can imagine having this conversation with.

Lucky for him, Ian is home. So are Debbie and Fiona, who are furious at each other, as per usual, which gives Lip the perfect excuse to pull Ian up to their old bedroom. Ian’s weed is in the second place Lip checks, and Lip crashes onto the bed so he can start packing a bowl.

“Would you have sex in front of a girl if it got your boyfriend really turned on?”

“Mickey wouldn’t care. Not that we’re still together,” Ian hastens to add. It’s hard to know what to say about that. Lip could get it if Ian just didn’t want to date someone in jail. He knows, however, that Ian broke up with him before that, and did it because he thought Mickey couldn’t love the new him. Which is such a load of garbage. Lip’s never seen a stronger showcasing of devotion, despite Mickey technically being a piece of shit.

“Hypothetically,” Lip presses, both because he wants Ian’s answer and because he doesn’t want to talk about his brother’s painfully fractured relationship.

Ian thinks about it as he inhales deeply, and by the time he’s exhaling he’s got an answer. “I mean, I guess? I performed a lot at the Fairy Tail, made it seem like I was into shit I wasn’t. That would be just another show.”

It’s another area Lip doesn’t want to delve too deeply into. It doesn’t take a physics major to understand the math of manic plus hypersexual plus broke. He never wants to make Ian feel ashamed for the things he couldn’t help doing, but thinking about it stresses him out. So he doesn’t ask about performing, and how far things went. Instead Lip circles back to his hypothetical. “Would you touch her?”

“Fuck no. I’m gay, remember?”

It should be that easy. Ian’s right. Ian’s gay, Lip’s straight, and switching gender channels isn’t going to work. Theo can be as relaxed and charming as he wants, Lip’s a straight man.

Except it really isn’t that easy. This time when Theo enters the room, he sits on the side of the bed. Lip nearly kicks him out, like literally donkey kicks so Theo falls on the floor, but the moment passes as Theo twists Helene’s nipples in a way Lip didn’t know she likes. It has her pussy clenching hard around his cock and it feels so good to have her climax all around him that anxiety can’t overcome pleasure when Theo’s hand eventually lands to cup his ass. Next time it’ll just have to be not missionary sex, so there’s no access, Lip vows.

It doesn’t work. If anything, Helene riding him three nights later is worse, in that it provides more surface area. Not that Theo even goes for his chest, or something exposed. Instead he spends the whole time Helene’s braced on Lip’s bent knees playing with the back of his thighs. Lip wouldn’t have guessed that to be an erogenous zone, past girlfriends sticking with the obvious, but there’s no question that it adds to the experience.

It still doesn’t feel right, though. It makes Lip feel like he’s not himself, like he’s burning down the reputation he’s had since freshman year at Lincoln Grove. It doesn’t matter that it’s arousing if it’s wrong, right? So once again he goes to the only person he knows who _knows_ who he is. Ian might be troubled, but there’s no doubt in Lip’s mind that his brother has the strongest sense of self of anyone he knows. If Lip can model dealing with his shit off anyone, it should be him.

“You really wouldn’t touch a girl if Mickey was super into it? If you were still with him.”

“We’re still talking about this?” Ian sighs.

“Come on,” Lip nudges.

“No. Because I’m gay, and he’s gay even if he can get it up for girls. Means I don’t want to touch girls. Isn’t this a conversation we should have had years ago? Like when you tried to get me to bone Karen?”

Lip sucks on his cigarette. If Ian’s gay, and is revolted by the idea, then as a straight man he’s gotta stop. Right? Shit. And double shit for the tension Ian’s practically garroting him with. “I’m not trying to fucking change you, asshole. This isn’t about you.”

“Literally is, considering you’re asking me to fool around with women.”

“It’s a fuckin’ hypothetical!” Okay, no. Time to change tactics. Ian’s not buying this, clearly. He’s apparently leveled out on his drug combo, but he’s been non-stop cranky, between Fiona’s mothering and his break up and his lack of future. Lip doesn’t want to push him too far, selling shit to his face. “Look. Theo has been getting into me and Helene’s business lately.”

“Really. A husband caring about who his wife fucks besides him? Shocking.”

Ian doesn’t understand yet, so Lip forces himself to clarify. “No. I mean like into our _business_. I’m trying to figure out how much is okay.”

“Oh. Oh shit.”

“Yeah.”

Ian takes the smoke and sucks his own drag. He doesn’t say anything. Lip doesn’t say anything. He can’t remember the last time he felt this fucking _safe_. There’s just something about his brother that soothes him in a way nothing else can. He lights a second cigarette and they smoke together, Carl’s rap music thumping at them from downstairs. It’s good, in a way he’s always scared he’s lost when Ian leaves, until he gets it again. 

After a few minutes of silence Ian asks, “he gonna stop if you say stop?”

“Yes.” Lip can’t imagine mild mannered Theo holding against a no for a second.

“You gonna kneejerk punch him in the face if he touches something you don’t like?”

“No.” It’s harder to say for certain, but Lip can see where it’d be a dick move. He already hit Dylan over a misunderstanding, doing it to Theo too would severely piss Helene off. 

“Fucking go for it then. Who knows, maybe you’re bi. Lots of people are.”

Shit. Bi. Shit. it just doesn’t seem right. In another life, in another world, maybe. Where Karen never got pregnant, and they moved away, somewhere better than Chicago, stayed together but open, each of them bringing various people to their shared apartment. That Lip can want to fool around with guys, the way that Karen fucked girls. But this Lip, the one who has to scratch for every moment of his college experience because sooner or later it’s going to get torn from him, he knows he’s doomed, knows that regardless of what it is, something’s going to destroy his dream? This Lip is straight, because anything else is a complication, and he’s already got those in spades.

He thinks about it. Being the kind of man who can say no to his roots and get whatever he wants. Every time he swigs a beer or takes a shot or smokes a joint he thinks about Theo and Helene using him at the same time, and he’s inebriated enough that it turns from philosophy and self truth to fantasy. For a week or two Lip manages to keep his trysts with Helene in his room or her office, to avoid the confrontation. Thinking about it on his own time is rough enough.

Then he snaps. He has his falling apple Newton moment, his come to god, Mendeleev’s dream, he was a ghost the whole time revelation. Yeah, he’s poor lady’s man Lip Gallagher, the genius second eldest with a pocket full of schemes and a drawer full of drugs. But he’s also just _a_ Gallagher, and Gallaghers fight. It might mean debasing yourself, or committing a crime, or hurting others, depending on the circumstances. But no Gallagher dismisses what they need just because it’s impossible. When the universe intends to fuck you, tell it to fuck off, because no one will say it for you.

So Lip gathers up all his courage. Once again he packs away part of his idea himself. It’s as nerve wracking this time as it was to walk away from the construction job and go party in Miami. And once who he’s supposed to be is crumpled up tightly in the back of his head, Lip makes his way to the Runyon house.

“You can blow me if you want,” he tells Theo, voice barely trembling.

“How very considerate.”

It’s not like the sex isn’t good. Helene keeps her lingerie on the whole time. A lacey black bra, tight weave fishnet stockings, and obscenely precarious high heels, it’s like something out of a porn. And that’s his thought _before_ Helene ties his arms behind his back with another pair of stockings. She grinds against his cock until Lip’s losing his mind, and then rips her fishnets open so he can finally fuck her in reverse cowgirl. Amanda never convinced him to try the university cliche of yoga, but he can definitely feel the burn in his core as he tries to fuck Helene properly without the use of his arms for leverage. The sex is very obviously good. It’s just Theo doesn’t touch him once, instead staying at the bottom of the bed to worship Helene’s feet. Lip waits from the start of the sex to the end for Theo to, if not blow him, at least touch him in some way. Nothing.

Was Theo’s positive response a joke? Did Theo think he was joking? It’s fucked up. He should be relieved by the apparent disinterest. If Theo doesn’t care, then Lip doesn’t have to consider redefining himself. And yet part of Lip’s just pissed. Don’t start shit like kissing and touching if you can’t follow through, right?

Lip thinks about it during the walk home. He stops to pick up a fifth of rum, and pours it down as he sits on his twin mattress in his boxers, attempting philosophy homework. It helps to pull away from the sexuality and identity crisis and focus on the easy stuff; Wollstonecraft. 

In the morning he does what he needs to do; grab something to eat and a coffee, grade a few papers, find Youens and clean him up and prep him for a classroom full of observant students, attend class, text Fiona. It isn’t until three pm that Lip can get away from it all and head for Ritchardson Hall. Helene’s in her office, as she always is at this time of day. She looks beautiful, and professional. Just two more buttons undone and Lip could bury his face in her cleavage.

She’s expecting him to pounce, he knows. Under normal circumstances he wouldn’t visit unless they were hooking up. But despite her beauty, Lip can’t quite do that yet. He needs to nail this down. “Does Theo ever have affairs? Or does he just get off on you having them?”

“Affairs implies lack of knowledge. Let’s go with dalliances.” 

Semantics, Lip would argue, except one thing he’s learned in university is that wide swathes of people base their lives on minutiae. “Okay then. Does Theo ever dalliance with anyone?”

“Yes of course. Hardly fair otherwise.”

“Are they ever with men?”

Helene pulls an orange from her drawer. She lays out a tissue and digs her fingernails into the rind. “Why do you ask?”

Lip would think the why is pretty obvious. “Just, are they?”

Helene looks up from the fruit to pin him to the wall. “Do you really want my husband to blow you, Lip?”

“I don’t know! I thought I didn’t until he didn’t, and now I’m questioning things.”

“He has no interest in being pity fucked, you know. Unobtainable straight man is fine, but a pity fuck is really quite a turn off. For both of us.”

“So what you’re really asking is am I gay enough to blow him back,” Lip snaps. “I don’t know. I don’t know what you want me to fucking tell you, Helene. I’ve never considered any of this before. Right now I feel like I want it, even though it’s nothing I would have been okay with a year ago. But it’s all a hypothetical until we’re fucking, isn’t it?”

He wants a smoke, or a drink. He can’t do either in front of her, not in her office. Marlboros and flasks in the middle of the day are hood, South Side things to do. She wants better from him.

Helene watches him squirm for just a moment, then she answers. “Come over tonight. We’ll have a nice dinner, watch this short film I’ve been dying to show you, and then we’ll see how far we can take things.”

“I can be free tonight,” Lip says, in a great decrease in volume and aggression. He appreciates being taken seriously.

Helene places her right hand on his left shoulder, takes a step in towards him, and places her left to box him in. Lip shudders through an exhale as her perfume wafts over him. She always smells so fucking good, from her conditioned hair to her perfumed neck to her wet pussy. “No pressure, Lip. But I’d love to see you stretch yourself.”

Yeah, no shit. Every minute Lip spends with Helene is a minute she spends teaching him something else that enriches his world, whether it’s sexual, academic, social, or intellectual.

It’s weird how similar it is to the night that started everything. Theo is nude, but in the armchair in the corner of the room as Helene bares Lip down to the bed. Lip settles himself on the sheets as Helene raises his arms and wraps his wrists in red cord. She ties both of them to the headboard before beginning to lick down his chest. No wine spill this time, but still an eager mouth. 

Where it turns is that after a minute Theo moves in. He stands and crosses the room to kneel on the bed. “Nothing complicated, alright Lip? No safewords. If you say stop or no, it’s done. Consent play is only fun when everyone already knows their boundaries.”

“Good to know,” Lip manages. He’s not quite sure what the fuck consent play is, aside from something he’ll be googling later, but he agrees that they don’t need anything complicated right now.

Theo crawls into the v between Lip’s legs and, discontent, spreads them further. His hands are much larger than Helene’s, like tennis rackets gripping him. Warmer too. Helene runs cold, she could happily wear a hoodie in July. Theo’s just on the edge of sweaty. Spread like this Lip feels exposed, bare to the world. He’s not sure if it’s good or bad. He’d like to get blown now, if only because it’d cover parts of him to have Theo on him. 

Theo goes a different way. He splays his hands and spends the next eternity dancing his fingers on Lip’s inner thighs. Lip’s skin is tingling, entirely covered in goosebumps. His body is rocking into the touch and squirming away at the same time. His dick is fully hard now. The idea of coming just from getting his thighs touched is ridiculous, but Lip’s not the only one finding it excruciatingly hot. Helene’s got her rabbit out and is enjoying its range of settings while watching Theo touch him.

It seems like it’s been forever by the time Theo scootches back so he can bend forward and takes the head of his dick in his mouth. Lip melts against the mattress at the warm honey bliss of a mouth on his cock after being teased so long. If Lip closed his eyes it could be Helene. Well, not entirely. She has a distinct technique. But conceptually, if he closed his eyes it could be a woman. A mouth is a mouth and all that. Except he doesn’t close his eyes, and he doesn’t let his high school self make excuses. He watches the dark hair on Theo’s head bob in rhythm as he sucks on him and can’t bring himself to regret it, even if he is tearing away from his own image.

It’s good, getting blown by a man. He has to hand it to Ian. When he’s right, he’s right, and he’s right about men on men cocksucking. Lip snorts at the idea of passing on the advice to Carl, or a decade from now, Liam. Frank and Monica are both bisexual, apparently it runs in the family.

Theo swallows when Lip comes. It’s the polite thing to do, but it doesn’t mean Lip doesn’t appreciate it. Sudden exposure to air always brings the orgasm down a little bit, at least in his experience. He never pulls out first, always waits for the woman to pull off. When Theo does finally surrender his cock, the first thing he does is lean over to the left side of the bed and kiss Helene. Lip wonders if she can taste him on Theo. It shouldn’t be as filthily sexy as it is, imagining slips of come sliding from Theo’s tongue to hers. They kiss for a minute, fingers twisting her nipple, tongues tangling, knee pressing the rabbit vibe just a little deeper into her cunt. It’s a fucking sight to see. Then Theo kneels up again, and turns his attention back to Lip.

“Can I fuck your face?” Theo asks oh so earnestly. The spike in Lip’s stomach is accompanied by Helene moaning and turning the vibe to a different setting. Lip isn’t quite sure what she has it doing now, just knows she’s rocketing towards her second orgasm. Women’s bodies are amazing, at least the women who can bring themselves to enjoy it. Karen and Mandy were always good for multiples too.

“Uh. Yeah. Let’s try that.” It’s not like he knows what he’s doing to be the instigator anyway. 

Theo spends the next few minutes rearranging Lip, sweaty hands pushing him into place. He doesn’t untie him, but he stacks pillows between Lip and the headboard until he’s semi-reclining and entirely supported. Even if Lip went limp he’d stay half sitting. 

“Comfy?”

“Better than Ayn Rand conking me in the head.”

“I apologized for that,” Helene protests, breathy from the way she’s fucking herself.

“Significantly comfier than blunt force trauma?” Theo persists.

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

Without another word he kneewalks forwards until he’s groin to face. Theo pushes his cock past open waiting lips and starts inching inside. Despite everyone in the room knowing it’s Lip’s first time, Theo doesn’t act like it, sliding his cock deep before angling out. It’s actually a good thing. Ever since he chugged his first beer at ten, Lip’s never been one for half measures. If he’s gonna blow a dude he’s gonna blow a dude. If it’s good he’ll just have to reconcile that with previous self truths.

And it is good. It’s rapidly apparent that he doesn’t want to tap out, yell stop, bite his dick off. Theo’s really fucking his mouth now, drilling into him, pulling out briefly then pressing forward again. Lip’s drooling, pooled saliva spilling over as Theo fucks it out of him. Lip clenches his fists in his bonds. He’s gonna get hard again if this keeps up. Helen’s come a second time and is on her way to her third. She didn’t remove the rabbit for a second, just kept going. He’d love to lick the juices off her, but he’s a little busy keeping his throat open as Theo fucks into it.

It dizzily occurs to Lip a few minutes in that they didn’t negotiate Theo warning him when he’s about to spill his load. He considers waving his arms around to get attention so Theo stops and they can talk, but doesn’t. He tasted his own jizz once, when he was thirteen and curious. From what he remembers it wasn’t that bad. If anything it’ll be the surprise that gets him. But he’ll be fine. You don’t grow up Gallagher and shut down at the first sign of a shock.

Lip’s brain comes close to shutting off as Theo keeps fucking his face. It’s a feeling he doesn’t get often, only with the best weed or copious alcohol. It’s tiring, thinking as much as he always does. Even sex doesn’t always shut up the non-stop layers of stream of consciousness. Only when the sex is really intense can Lip get some relief. And this; Theo pounding into him until his eyes water? It’s pretty goddamn intense.

Theo pulls out of his mouth and Lip thinks he’s realized their communication error too. He doesn’t want to talk right now, is gonna say ‘just do it’ or something else succinct to get Theo back in his mouth. Except Theo doesn’t ask the question. Instead he starts jerking off, Lip’s thick spit more than enough to ease the way. 

Before Lip knows it, Theo is coming on his face. The first streak hits over his left eyebrow and starts dripping down. The second and what comes after is better aimed at his cheek. Lips closes an eye as the come starts to sting, keeps the other open to watch Theo panting and slumping as his adrenaline leaves him. Lip hasn’t felt like this much of a slut in a long time. It’s fucking heady.

Helene rises to her knees, careful to keep holding her vibe in place. She hip checks Theo out of the way and Lip would like to say he keeps track of where the man goes, but it’d be a lie. All Lip can focus on is the way Helene grabs his shoulder with one hand, the other occupied, and leans in to begin making out with him. The moment they start to kiss is the moment Helene starts smearing her husband’s come across her face as well as Lip’s. It’s wild what you learn you love when you have an experienced lover. 

She makes out with him until she comes again. Lip can feel her orgasm in the way her fingernails dig into his shoulder, in the way she whimpers into his mouth, in the way her leg quivers against him. It’s unbearably hot to see Helene through it. He’d make a sex tape if he could, watch her fall apart every night on screen. Lip’s so focused on her orgasm he’s not expecting Helene to have enough concentration to pull the rabbit out of her pulsing cunt and jam it against the head of his cock. He can’t control the noise he makes when she does.

Sudden max vibration for ten seconds is all Lip needs to spill over a second time. A little embarrassing, but he’s not exactly a quick draw overall. Coming seconds into a specific act is okay if it’s the twentieth act of the evening. He falls back into the pillowstack, away from Helene’s mouth and hair and tits, though their legs are still tangled. His burning eyes flutter shut and he surrenders to the orgasmic afterglow.

Lip rouses himself when Helene gets off the bed and Theo stretches over him to undo the ties around his wrists. Lip draws his arms down, right hand absently playing with the light rope burn on his left wrist. From the dresser drawer, Theo pulls out some baby wipes. Theo wipes him clean of jizz and Helene’s saliva and his own drool and tears and snot. He’s a hot fucking mess, but Theo takes care of him until Helene comes back from the bathroom in an old worn shirt and the wet shine of freshly applied moisturiser.

“Night boys. I have to get up at six.”

Helene beds down on the left side of the mattress, rolling so her back is to them. It leaves Lip to drink from the bottle of water Theo has somehow produced. It’s room temperature, but it’s wet, and quenches his thirst after what seems like almost an hour of sex.

“She’s so beautiful when she sleeps,” Lip says, to break the ice. He doubts she’s quite asleep yet, but it’s not going to hurt anything for her to hear that secret.

“Yeah.” 

Lip runs his hand down the hairy length of Theo’s thigh. All the college guys Lip could have experimented with and he doesn’t even go for a skinny little twink, someone easily mistaken for female. No, he thinks he likes Theo, wiry hair and thick biceps and large fingers and all. Lip gets a flash in his mind of how densely hairy legs might feel pressed against the back of his thighs and nearly turns purple. It’s taking this too far. Isn’t it? 

Before he can begin to panic too badly about it, Lip settles himself watching Helene breathe. He can never get enough of watching loved ones sleep. It’s just so soothing, seeing people defenseless and unafraid. Lip feels trusted when girls can sleep with him.

“Can I show you something?”

“Of course.”

Lip gets off the bed carefully, so as to not wake Helene. His phone is downstairs in the kitchen, he grabs it as well as his cigarettes before heading back upstairs. In the time it takes him, Helene has fallen completely asleep and Theo has put on a thin pair of boxers. The night is definitely winding down. Good. Lip’s completely worn out. He’ll have to decide where he’s crashing tonight soon.

Before he does anything else though, Lip wants to show Theo his gorgeous photo of Helene sleeping. Lip has looked at it a million times. The juxtaposition of her magnificence and the rubenesque mural behind her is striking. It’s erotica on a level Hustler wishes it could attain.

But Theo’s not impressed like he should be. He’s frowning, actually. “You took a picture of her? On your phone?”

“I had to. Look how beautiful it is.”

“I’m not arguing beauty. But what if you lose your phone and someone gets it unlocked? Think. She loses her standing, possibly her job, not to mention the humiliation. You need to delete it.”

It kills Lip to do it, but Theo’s right. Joaquin is cool, but there are no doubt gross incel hackers at CPoly too. They’d jerk it to this in a second. Probably spread it around to their gross friends too. Lip can’t let that be a possibility. He pulls it to the trashcan icon, and confirms Delete Photo on the popup.

“You made the right choice,” Theo says, just a bit too genuine for Lip’s tastes. He’s used to truths tainted with sex or devotion or domination, not what he imagines fatherly pride would feel like.

“Yeah.”

“You need a ride back to campus?”

“Nah.” Lip absolutely believes Theo is the kind of middle aged man who could be trusted to drive someone in need somewhere in the middle of the night. Only months into fucking his wife, Theo was already more reliable than Frank. With how long it’s been now, he actively wouldn’t suggest Theo piss on Frank if he was on fire, for fear Theo might smudge his shoes. He also knows he’s not going to pull Theo out of his marriage bed to drive him back to the campus. No way.

He could walk back, of course. The idea has its positives. He’d get more sleep with his R.A. duties starting at 7:30, and then only if someone needs him that early, than with Helene waking them up at six. But there’s a mood in the room right now, a resonant chord Lip likes. If he leaves now it breaks. If he stays, maybe it’s still there in the morning. Maybe, just maybe, he can stretch this relationship as long as it takes everything else to come crashing down. No amount of orgasmic brain dysfunction is going to have him dumb enough to believe he’s going to graduate and live happily ever after. But why not ride this Mr and Mrs Runyon thing until the end? What better does the world have to offer him than this?

Lip waits until Theo reclines beside Helene, tucking in to be her big spoon. That’s when he makes his move. He lies down in the space Theo’s left. There’s just enough mattress for him to claim his standard sleeping position; on his back with his hands on his stomach. 

“Yeah, okay. That’s okay. Goodnight, Lip.”

“Night Theo.” 

This is more comfortable than Lip would have guessed. Not the physical sleeping with someone. Lip grew up having roommates. If not his brothers and sisters then people crashing at the house, or fellow foster kids, or passing out in a basement with a dozen people at a party. A night or two in juvie. If Lip can’t hear someone else breathing, it makes it harder to fall asleep. No, what’s oddly comfortable is how fine he is about wanting to wake up beside Theo. Twelve hours ago it wasn’t okay, and now it just... is. Apparently Ian was right, and some people are bisexual. Given the particulars, Lip would prefer to say he learned it from Karen, rather than Frank or Monica. But he is, he’s bisexual, and if he’s going to use that newfound knowledge as another crutch in his path to get away from the South Side persona he used to encompass, so be it. Like he told the financial aid guy, he needs all the help he can get.


End file.
